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wearing the season

last year I knitted this flower scarf in the colours of the season: Late Summer. Now I’m wearing it whilst resting (= knitting) in the garden. It gives such a good feeling to echo the colours all around me! There are all the different leaf greens and the late yellow flowers and raspberries around me.

Noro has a few features you can tweak: I cut out the colour I didn’t like on this colour way, the greys. And after it was finished I mistreated the scarf, I fulled it agressively. Put it in hot water, in ice cold water, hot again, rolled it in a towel, wacked it against the door frames. All this to soften it up, it is now soft enough around my neck. The yarn bloomed too.

Two other features I want to name: Noro typically had a bit of straw left in the thread. I see this as an echo of its origine: the sheep walked in the meadows.

Noro has an interesting thread: it looks like a single of wool, nylon and silk fibers. But when you untwist it and look closely you’ll see it’s actually two strands twisted together. Not plied, just twisted. This gives lovely ideas for spinning of your own: you can build up a ‘single’ from various pieces of roving and play with colours and textures that way (for play on colours this way check out the marvellous book of Debbie Menz). The whole notion of plying may be over estimated in a spinners brain, it is only necessary in a few purposes. Certainly not for a scarf, a shawl or a sweater. Unless you work in thin singles such as alpaca. Or want crisp stitch definition (cables anyone?)